How do I pronounce "Kamala"?
How do I pronounce "Kamala"?
Is it “Camel-uh” or “Cam-ahl-uh”?
119 comments
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Comma-la (as she tells us to pronounce it), or even Com'la (as it is traditionally pronounced)
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Thank you for this. I’ve heard her name mispronounced so often that I genuinely thought kah-MALL-uh was correct. Whoops! Comma-la it is!
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Happy to help!
Oh, I shoulda linked to a first-hand source where she herself wrote "comma-la" as the pronunciation (no particular accent on syllables). It is in her book, and also towards the bottom of this piece has that excerpts from her book: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/book-excerpt-kamala-harris-truths-hold/story?id=60234101
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"Comma-la" unfortunately doesn't help much for people without US accents lol (though of course people in the US are who the question and answer are most relevant to). On first reading -- without the accent or something close to it -- it implies "kom-uh-luh", whereas with the accent it implies something more like "kah-muh-luh", just based on how people pronounce "comma" differently.
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It's funny because the way you spelt it sounds like the first "don't" of the video you linked. Americans in general seem to make a point of pronouncing things their way rather than how they should be. I don't think it's racism as much as it is laziness.
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their way rather than how they should be.
Every language has different sounds. It has long been understood that languages will translate words/names into versions they can actually hear and pronounce. Sadly, some people mock or demean people who try to speak a non-native language and make errors in it. In the U.S. it used to be fairly common to mock Asians coming from a language with only one liquid consonant sound for their inability to differentiate between 'r' and 'l' sounds.
I know I can't hear the difference in various Russian language vowels and while I can hear tones, I don't know how I'd explain their pronunciation in an Anglicized name -- or if it would be relevant.
While I appreciate that regional accents mean that non-U.S. citizens might not say "comma" the way it is heard in the U.S., I do expect that if a U.S. citizen tells me to pronounce their own name in a U.S. manner, then that is how it "should be" pronounced.
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sorry are you saying people should pronounce their own names in ways they don't prefer to be "correct"? Also etc etc language guides are descriptive not prescriptive.
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I think it's pronounced "Madam President"
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So say we all.
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Was wondering earlier, why not just President? Why add the "madam"?
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As opposed to "Mr President" which seems common enough
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It's just a slightly more formal sounding title. This answer on stackexchange goes through some of the history on why alternatives aren't used.
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Comma-la
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However she pronounces it.
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Right right right
and that would be ... ?
Oh, I found the video on her Youtube channel literally addressing this question back in 2016:
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KAH-muh-luh HAER-is
Kamala (/ˈkɑːmələ/) Harris (/ˈhærɪs/)
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Harris
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srsly
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Fun fact.
In Finnish "kamala" means "awful".
We are gonna have endless dad jokes with this one.
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In British English, Trump means (1) the sound an elephant makes or (2) a fart, particularly a noisy one. If you trump your own horn it means you're boastful and think of yourself higher than other people do.
President Trump = President Fart.
Still funny after all these years, despite the looming fascism. -
She does have the truly AWFUL job of being a women of color that our nation is depending on to beat one of the worst once elected, twice impeached former presidents.
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"Kamala"
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The Indian (Sanskrit) name is pronounced ka-ma-laa (meaning lotus), with no stress, and no gap in between the syllables. The first two 'a's are pronounced like the 'u' in rum, while the last is the same sound but longer (so like the 'a' in calm).
The US Presidential candidate's name is pronounced the way she likes, which in this case is closer to ko-ma-laa.
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Every word has stress. You probably mean the first phoneme is stressed. And the "rum" sound you're looking for is called the "schwa"
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Not in classical Sanskrit. Vedic Sanskrit had pitch accent, which had been lost by the classical Sanskrit era. English has stress accent. But many languages do not have stress accent, and either have pitch accent or syllables are not accented at all.
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Every word has stress.
In most Indian languages, most words are unstressed. There is a distinction between long and short syllables, but that comes from vowel length, not stress. A few words (like him-AA-la-ya) do have stress, but this is the exception and usually happens due to conjugation.
You probably mean the first phoneme is stressed.
No, kamala is unstressed.
And the "rum" sound you're looking for is called the "schwa"
Yes.
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Karma-la... But drop the 'r'
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,-la
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Anyone else craving olives after reading this thread?
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Watch miss marvel and listen how her mother calls her.
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I say it as [ˈka.ma.la].
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Neither! I also had this question. No emphasis on any part, karma-la.
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Emphasis is on the first syllable, is how I’ve heard it.
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I pronounce it like the toki pona word "kalama"
No, i do not swap "la" and "ma"
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Cum Allah
Edit: Jeez, I was just trying to help pronounce it
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Careful that’s how we got the floods that one time…
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Yes. Also, I have no idea.
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Ga-ma-la
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Car-mullah
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"Kahm-lah".
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Why would you think it can only be pronounced with an "uh" at the end? Where did that come from?
I could be wrong about how she uses her name of course, but I would pronounce it Cam-ahl-a, nothing the hard a at the end, as in apple.
We don't say uhpple, we say apple.
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Why would you think it can only be pronounced with an "uh" at the end? Where did that come from?
I can’t think of any words that end in the hard a (but I’m willing to learn, hence this post).
But words that end in the letter a with the “uh” sound seem to be common:
China Koala Academia Pizza Cicada
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Huzzah does (as do similar words like hurrah), but it’s hard to find a non-stressed version, except for maybe chutzpah
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I don't think it would be correct to use the A in apple for any of the As in Kamala. It's more of the A with an open mouth than constrained to the front. The A in calm is much closer imo
I should really be using the IPA to make my point here but I don't know all the letters
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Rhymes with Pamela.
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Deleted
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This is the worst attempt in this whole thread 😂. Doesn't even have the same letters!
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Kah-muh-luh as it would be pronounced in her mind. Or Camille, if it was anglicized.
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"Que Mala."
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Que Mala
Nyet
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Geno·cider Fas·cist
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Careful you don't cut yourself on all that edge
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Mocking enablers of zionist ethnic cleansing is edgy? You must've gotten lost on your way back to the r/politics DNC corpomedia grifter cult.
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119 comments